


Gone Too Soon

by Lockdown



Category: Venom (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Other, Psychological Trauma, Trauma, Venom: First Host
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-06 05:33:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16382354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lockdown/pseuds/Lockdown
Summary: For Eddie, this is a dream too good to be true. He and his other prepare to invest their lives into raising Sleeper, and making sure they don’t grow up to be a murderer. Things are going well until Sleeper says they have other plans. This is more into what Eddie thought and felt in the end of First Host.





	Gone Too Soon

Anne died before they could have any kids. Eddie had always wanted children, and wanted someone to have them with. When she... left, it felt like he died.

Everything  was lost for him; his wife was gone, his reputation, his job- he  was left with nothing and no reason to live. He never expected to find new purpose in life with an alien. He never expected that he would love anyone more than Anne, but he did. When he lost the other it wasn't like losing Anne, because he was going to get it back. It took a long time for him to find his other and slip into a position that would allow him to get close enough to rebond. When they did rebond, they ran together, ran away from all the people between them. They swore no one would ever separate them again. Things were harder than either of them expected in the start. Venom would do bad things without telling Eddie. He started to hurt people while Eddie slept. Venom hunted criminals, maimed harmless thieves. Eddie asked a priest for advice, and he said that their relationship wasn't good for them. Later that night, the symbiote tried to kill the priest. It didn't want anyone to persuade Eddie to leave it.

The last person the other bonded to was a man named Lee. Lee liked to hurt people, liked the power they had together. He abused Venom in every way:  physically ,  emotionally , and mentally, all because he liked it. He got drunk on the power they had together. Things like that stick to a person, leak into who they are. Though his other was free with Eddie, he  was confused about right and wrong, confused about what love was. It knew what it had with Lee wasn’t love, but what was? That was a while ago now. Things were better between Eddie and his other now, more open, and they were on the path to heroism again. Venom stopped doing things without Eddie's knowledge. Now they were partners, each equal, and each with a voice in their relationship.

His other didn't dream, it didn't sleep at all in fact. But Eddie had to sleep. The other watched his dreams, saw them  vividly , could taste his emotions as he slept. It knew he had nightmares a lot, almost every night, even if he was happy that day. So much had happened in his past, so much grief and pain and terror, there was enough to fill a million nightmares. Many nights he twitched and shifted, sweat beading on his skin, huffing out mouthfuls of air. When the other looked to see what he dreamt, it saw itself  being torn from Eddie while he tried to stop it in vain. Eddie always clung tighter to his other after he woke from those dreams. But his nightmares started to change one day, change in a way that hadn't happened before. His nightmares incorporated not only his past traumas, but his symbiote's as well. So many of it's children had  been ripped away from it to  be weaponized as tools. They weren't even recognized as sentient by the people that took them. Shared dreams had never happened to them before.

Eddie knew deep down from the wrench in his gut when he vomited after waking that there was something wrong. It's thoughts  were shielded from Eddie's curious mind. When Eddie asked about it, it changed the subject by offering a much needed breath of fresh air. He didn't want to question it after they had worked so hard to build up trust again. There was something wrong, but it didn't want to tell Eddie, it wanted him to know, to sense it. The thought of telling him the truth, that it was having a baby, was terrifying.

Eddie had always wanted kids, but hearing he was going to have one from a woman they hardly knew  hurt . His other had been expecting this baby for a long time, had plenty of chances to tell him, but didn't. They assumed he would feel it, yet they knew he didn't. He  was enraged , but beneath it was a betrayal that cut to his heart. The trust they tried to hard to build  was stressed , like a rubber band stretched taut, about to snap. He shut out his other, not wanting to hear any more excuses. This was important, this was so important, and he seemed to be the last guy to hear about it. In the end, there wasn't anything he or the other could do to change the past, so he accepted the situation. The hurt from the betrayal wasn't gone, but the baby was about to come. Some things were more important.

The symbiote's previous offspring  were ripped out of it, damaging it. Now the symbiote had to pay the price for it again. Eddie writhed with pain, his heart beating too fast, until he  was forced to separate from his other. He didn't leave though, he protected the symbiote in it's vulnerable state. When it was over though, it was worth it. The baby didn't move at first, giving him a second heart attack, but the doctor was able to save it. They got as much security for the baby as they could. The Life Institute provided them protection so long as they could study it. The baby was going to  be raised right this time.

The other's first bonded returned at the worst time, trying to get the symbiote back. He  was portrayed as a war hero in the other's memory, a champion of justice, a perfect hero. He didn’t want his other to leave, but if it would be happier with this man, he could let go. The air  was knocked out of his lungs when it declined the offer and chose him over Tel-Kar, Mr. Perfect Alien. That single action healed some of the stress over keeping the baby a secret. Turned out Mr. Perfect wasn't as pleased, nor was he actually a good guy. Like many others bonded to the symbiote, he desired only power. The vulnerable baby provided the perfect leverage to get that power back. After a series of close calls and one trip into space, Venom was back together with their child.

They were a unit, they were family. They couldn't be parents, not good ones anyway, and still go out every day fighting crime. In the wake of their responsibilities as parents, their hatred got pushed aside. They had a reason now to put aside their wants for something better. Raising the baby meant putting all their time into it, and giving up fighting for the time being. The Life Institute wouldn't allow them back, and they didn't want to go back. They were on their own now. Eddie's experience with kids  was limited , so they were in the dark on what to do. It wasn't like a parenting book would be much help for an alien baby.

Eddie's other had ideas though, as it always did. Eddie never cared for human culture, it wasn't exceptional to him, having been around it his whole life. The race to which the other belonged to reproduced asexually- once per generation. They have no social structure, no such thing as family. That's why many of its previous offspring had seemed so unimportant. Now that it had a taste for family, it wanted it. It loved the idea of marriage, of  being bonded to one person for life, the idea of it  being done somewhere special. Eddie knew that's why it loved that they bonded in a church, like a wedding. It wanted to raise a kid with it's bonded, like in any nuclear family. Eddie didn't need any persuasion. His hopes that died with Anne sparked back to life, his hopes growing into plans. He  was scared , but it was the good scared, the kind you couldn't wait for. They planned in their head where they could move, how big the house would be, how to get food, how to pay for it....

It didn't last. It ended far too soon.

The child bonded to Tel-Kar to free it's parent from him. It got a taste of the universe inside Tel-Kar's brain, and it wanted more. In a matter of seconds it's potential childhood  was sucked away. For it's entire life it was in a cage. Safe, protected, and coddled inside, it  was told about the wonderful world outside. It wanted to see the world now with its own eyes, this one and the next, and all the ones after that. Before Eddie could even process what happened, his child began speaking to him. Tel-Kar, now no more than an empty husk, became Sleeper.

Standing before him on the sidewalk, his baby didn't look small or defenseless anymore. In the broad daylight they stood  confidently as they looked down on Eddie. It was like an electric shock hearing them call him father aloud for the first time. Eddie had a thought in the back of his mind, a thought that said he should be more upset. He was awfully calm, and the world felt muffled, like he was underwater. Sleeper placed their hand on his shoulder and told him goodbye. He knew he should be more upset, but his mind felt clouded and hazy. Then they were gone- turned invisible. The hand left his shoulder, leaving a ghost touch. He heard it speak in his head, " ** Say goodbye to our other parent for us ** . " The fogginess lifted after a minute and the true scope of what he'd lost became tangible. Sleeper had used its unique abilities to confuse him and dull the pain. The feeling inside him now echoed though his empty skull like a gunshot. It overtook any other thoughts and emphasized how alone he was in his head. He felt sick to his stomach.

He wanted his other, he wanted it's embrace and its soothing, and he wanted the pain to go away. He was so alone. he knew what it was like to lose Anne and to lose Venom, but never a child. He reached out to where the doorknob to his apartment should be, but his hand only met air. When did he walk upstairs? He looked down at the door on the floor, obliterated into splinters from the fight. His other was inside, waiting for him, now recovered from its injuries. " ** Eddie... The child... ** . " It coiled  nervously on the bed. Glass shards from the broken aquarium  were scattered on the floor. Venom had planned on getting a better crib for the baby when they moved out. He walked across the room to the bed, the shards grating on the bottoms of his bare feet. He sat  heavily beside his other and rested his elbows on his knees, hanging his head. The other curled around him, but he couldn't muster the energy to give it a warm welcome. "Is free." He stared at the floorboards speckled with glass. "It's... free now." The other reconnected to Eddie's mind and saw what had happened playing on repeat in his head. The haunting quality of the memory reminded the symbiote of Eddie's nightmares.

" ** We... protected... ** . "

"Yes. We protected." Police sirens wailed in the distance, getting louder. "We protected each other too." Eddie twitched his finger, feeling the other slide across his skin. It felt like there was a hole in his chest, and the cracks from it spread across his body, and any second he might fall apart. He was splintering away in little shards. The other held him closer, and he said, "We have each other.  No one can take that away. We have each other."

The other encased him, holding him  firmly together. It filled in the cracks across his body and tried to fill the gaping wound in his chest.

" ** Forever ** . "

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! I was absolutely destroyed after reading First Host, so this is dedicated to anyone who was also destroyed after reading that :') . Thanks for reading this, it’s my first fic and I would love feedback, good or bad. I’ll appreciate it either way! ❤️  
> 


End file.
